1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and method for automatic instance data mapping generation. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for creating a migration mapping definition based upon model changes, and using the migration mapping definition to migrate instance data from an older software version to a newer software version.
2. Description of the Related Art
Software developers are continuously updating software application programs by providing new features in the application in order to gain a competitive advantage. For example, a software developer may upgrade application “XYZ” from version 1.0 to version 2.0 in order to include a simpler approach for importing images, as well as the ability to import newer image format types.
When a software developer updates an application version, the software developer also develops a migration product, which may be a migration application or migration adapters. These migration products allow an end user to migrate data that is generated on an older software version to a newer software version. Using the example described above, the software developer may provide a migration application that allows an end user to migrate data that was generated on application XYZ version 1.0 to a data format that is compatible with application XYZ version 2.0. A challenge found, however, is that creating these migration products requires additional effort from the software developer.
Today, software developers typically use an integrated development environment (IDE) to develop software applications that are based upon models. A software developer uses the IDE to generate the model that, in turn, is the backbone behind the application. The IDE's, however, have complex frameworks for interchanging tool data and metadata information. This information is not always complete or collected in such a way in order to automatically generate a migration application. A challenge found, therefore, is that data modelers are still required to manually write the migration applications or migration adapters that enable a user to migrate data from earlier software versions to newer software versions.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method for automatically generating a migration product that migrates data from an earlier software version to a newer software version.